


FMA Misc AUs - Drabble Collection

by zosimos (trismegistus)



Series: Misc FMA AUs [6]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M, Misc AUs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:02:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 5,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2197989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trismegistus/pseuds/zosimos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collecting all the short fic I've posted on typetrigger & tumblr; shorts relating to Leaving on Red Hill; the Revenant series; the Hagane no Samurai series, and more besides.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. leaving on red hill - changing season

The days had already started to get longer, it seemed that daylight was the first sign of spring this far north. Roy was unaccustomed to it – in all his travels he never cared much for the desolate cold, so he had given the north a wide berth. The days were growing longer but the snow still crunched under his feet, although in some spots, where the sun hit right, bright green shoots were starting to peek through the thinning layer of snow.

Animals were starting to reappear. Squirrels in the trees, chattering as they raced up and down the bare branches, springboarding from one tree to another, letting forth showers of melting snow from the branches. Rabbit tracks in the snow, and of course the caribou were starting to migrate northward as well, able to return to the forests that they spent the spring and summer in. All this activity brought with it other activity – the bears were starting to make their presence known as they ended their months-long hibernation. But the biggest change, the one Roy really wasn’t ready for, echoed lonely on the cool winds on the first night of the full moon.

He laid next to Edward on a rock shelf, overlooking a slope. They slept wherever they found safety, and they so rarely wore human form Roy wasn’t quite sure what to do with his feet when they did.

Edward had flicked an ear when the howl began, faint on the evening winds, but it was Roy who lifted his head. He had heard howls before, he had exchanged them with Edward whenever they separated to hunt for prey in the scarce winter months, but this was an unfamiliar melody. A stranger, in their territory. Roy’s hackles rose involuntarily, and Edward finally lifted his head, sensing Roy’s unease.

His fur in the moonlight was washed out, grey and white, but his eyes were still as gold as they were in his human form. He looked to Roy, one ear cocked back as the howl concluded, fading off into the night.

Roy felt something rising in his gut, he wanted to get to his feet and howl a defiant challenge in return. And that, he realized, was exactly what the howl was. A challenge – we are new here, we are young and virile and this is our forest, now – and he couldn’t let that go unanswered, this was their forest, who did those cubs think that they were -

Edward was still staring at him, and even though a wolf’s muzzle could not really smile, he could sense the amusement off of Edward anyway. Roy sighed animatedly, a great big huff of a sigh, and put his head on his front paws. He could howl, and howl until his lungs were empty and his mouth was dry, but Edward intended to take them further north as the spring progressed. This may be their forest now, but they wouldn’t be sticking around the area long.

They had talked about it the last time that they had had sex – in human form, dirty and tangled and hot, lying in the snow with his dark hair spread out as Edward rode him, fingernails clawing red scars across his bare chest – they did most of their actual talking then. Edward, who once he got started on talking never seemed to shut up, you could distract him but not quiet him – he had spent so long trapped in the silence of his lupine form that he seemed to not remember true conversation. He wanted to take them North, and maybe west – there were no country borders to wolves, and Edward wanted to find the edge of the world and look into the ocean. It sounded like a fine plan to Roy.

Roy didn’t need conversation anyway. Just having Edward here, by his side – a look spoke volumes, the cock of his ears, the tilt of his head – they could hunt together effortlessly. Edward did most of his talking in that first month, teaching Roy about being a wolf, how to not go crazy from sensory overload, how to move, how to think, how to live.

Edward put his head down, over the back of Roy’s neck, and breathed out a contented sigh. There was no smiling for wolves, but there was contentment – a full belly, a safe shelter to sleep and a warm body to lie next to – and Roy would not trade this life for anything. He thumped his tail against the cool rock twice, yawned as well he could without disturbing Edward, and slid effortlessly into sleep.


	2. unnamed au - travels

“I can’t believe that there’s a city so far off from a train station,” Winry Rockbell complained, her shoulders slumped in exhaustion. They had been walking for the better part of three hours, the train station long vanished into the dusty road behind them. The mountains loomed high in the distance, they were near to the border here, and while it was unseasonably warm in most of the country, there was still an icy cool wind that crept down from the mountains. “This doesn’t make any sense, are you sure you read the map right?”

“I did read it right,” Alphonse’s voice was indignant. His helmet clanked a bit as he looked around. The sun was still high enough in the sky that everything around them was safely illuminated, but twilight would be here soon; and without a town or even a farmhouse within sight, it looked as though it would be another night of sleeping by the side of the road. “But you’re right, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Winry was still wearing the wide-brimmed summer hat she had bought from the vendors at the last marketplace they had visited before getting on the train. They had had to move quickly, the familiar, oppressive blue of the military uniforms had started to turn up on the edges of the crowd. They were being tracked, wherever they went – and it was quietly unnerving.

Winry didn’t seem to notice their ever-present, blue-clad companions – or she might have been ignoring them. Either way, she hummed a jaunty tune as they continued down the path, although her jaunty tune quickly slid into a large yawn.

“Man, If I find out that blond-haired brat was yanking my chain I’ll tear off his ears,” Winry muttered, shifting her suitcase from her left hand to her right. “City of knowledge my ass, I bet he was just trying to get rid of me.”

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Alphonse said. “Russell really seemed to like you, Winry.”

Winry waved her right hand in the air, the fading sunlight glinting off the joints in her hand. They had been softened a bit by the newer equipment, but the silver was still a startling contrast to the dark tan of her back. “I think he liked hearing himself talk most of all,” she said. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say he’s fishing for patrons.”

Alphonse thought about this for a moment. It wasn’t uncommon, for young, poor alchemists to search for a patron to support them in their research – it was only the most desperate of alchemists who went to the government, to the military to prostitute themselves for a watch and a research grant. “Maybe he was yet,” Alphonse said.

Winry shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever. What he does is no concern of mine.” She knocked on Alphonse’s breast plate with her automail hand. “What concerns me most is you.” When she grinned up at him, Alphonse felt, strangely, slightly warm – which was impossible, the sensation of touch was one now made of nothing but memories.

“Do you really think we’ll find what we’re looking for there?” Alphonse looked down at his gauntlet, the hand alone as big as Winry’s head. She didn’t hesitate in her stride, but she did look back at Alphonse.

“If we don’t, we’ll just keep looking,” she said seriously. “We’ll just keep looking for as long as it takes.”


	3. revenant - untitled

The silence was the thing that unsettled Edward the most. It wasn’t that he was unused to silence – in those long stretches of road between cities, where maybe a single vehicle would pass them as they walked dirt paths and through overgrown fields the silence was natural. There would be the sounds of nature, of Alphonse trudging along behind him dutifully, the regular noises of people as they drew closer to cities, to civilization.

It was all gone now. Even the nature sounds; the natural sounds of animals and the wind through the trees and rain on the roof; they seemed muted and sorrowful. It felt as if the entire world was in mourning.

They rotated the watch – the tiny little compound was as secure as they could make it, but nothing was foolproof. While the ghoulish spectres gathered at the main gate, they could not figure a way around the military vehicles. Even if they grabbed at handholds, none of the dead appeared to have the ability to climb.

That didn’t mean that they were safe from others, though. There were other survivors, there were bound to be. With military outposts all over the city it was disturbing that more people had not come to see if there were any stores of weapons left to be looted. This was their base, right now – and it had to be protected, even against other people.

Edward still felt uneasy handling the rifle. Riza and Claude both had been instructing everyone in the best usage of the long-distance weapon, but Edward had simply never been comfortable with guns. Bladed weapons were more his forte – and as ammunition dwindled they would have to go back to close combat with the flesh-eaters. But while they had this place of sanctuary, there was no reason to risk themselves in that manner. 

It was warmer now, the heavy stench of decomposition in the air nearly impossible to avoid. Edward leaned on the lip of the roof, the only light he had to watch by was the waning half-moon. Electricity was a luxury of the past.

The warmth, and light, of the cooking fire was blocked on all sides by the buildings or the military vehicles. Most of those were in deplorable condition, not a single one would be serviceable to drive out of here. It was part of the reason that they were stationary, that they had not opted to move on. Joey had been working as best she could, aided by Alphonse and Fuery, to put an engine together that would run long enough to get their small band out of Central City, and hopefully to safety. 

The other reason, Edward figured, was because Mustang was not ready to move on yet.

There were others in the city somewhere – Roy had left them behind, left them holed up with three guns and plenty of ammunition, but when they returned to rescue them there was no sign of the evacuees. Mustang felt guilty, why had they not run across any more survivors? But there was no point to it. Here and now they had to worry about themselves, worry about their own skins and worry about keeping everyone else alive in order to reach some measure of safety in the North.


	4. misc au - ears

Edward’s … special talents, as they were, was something of a poorly-kept secret in the garrison. Upon occasion it was often wondered how they managed to do anything, or get anything done with any measure of security given the fact that so many things – Edward’s condition, the truth about Alphonse in the armor, Roy’s ridiculous propensity for propositioning selective subordinates – had traction in the mess and down in the canteen. Perhaps it was simply because so many “important,” “secretive” things wandered around unfettered that no one really looked too closely at the unit, and that was perhaps the only reason that they hadn’t been caught sooner.

Roy Mustang held his hand over his face and groaned. The pain had lessened considerably, it had crept from a burning, searing straight through his bones to a low-grade ache that made the thought of moving a poor idea. It was still there, though, and showed no signs of completely abating.

Edward sat at his desk – well, on his desk, the alchemist didn’t seem interested in Roy’s favorite desk chair. Even now, years later his feet still dangled considerably, and he kicked the heels of his faded red-soled boots against the heavy wood desk as he turned the page on the report that he was reading.

At some point he had stopped reading the report aloud to Roy, and Roy was in too much pain to notice or bother to care, but whatever was in the report Edward was reading apparently fascinated him, and that was worrying. Somewhat worrying. Roy sighed and laid his forearm over his eyes, trying not to worry about the amount of shit the Lieutenant would give him if she opened the door to find Edward – Edward – doing his paperwork.

If Edward had ears in his human form, they would be standing attentive on the top of his head. Roy could almost see them, gold, the color of his hair, with white tufts of fur on the inside. In fact, he could see them. Roy lifted his head, squinted at Edward, who was halo-ed in golden, late afternoon sunlight, and then followed the line of the light to the shadow on the floor.

Yup.

Ears.

“Fullmetal,” Roy said, his voice slightly scratchy. Edward lifted his head at his voice, clearly willing to be distracted from such lesser work as “skimming the reports meant for Roy’s eyes only.” As he did so, he cocked his head slightly, and both ears swiveled in Roy’s direction, displaying the full amount of his attention.

“Yeah?” Edward said after Roy’s moment of stunned silence. He really wasn’t hallucinating, Edward actually had ears coming from the top of his skull.

Edward was watching him critically, and Roy finally put one hand on top of his head and said, weakly, “Ears.”

Edward stared at him as if he were hallucinating. “You’ve gone daft. Finally.”

“No, no – you have ears,” Roy sat up fully, ignored the rush of the room spinning around him. If he ever found out what that fucking ass of a wannabe State Alchemist injected him with he was going to create a triple dosage and deliver it to the man in the most sensitive area available.

Edward’s ears twitched at the admonition. “You have ears too,” Edward said pointedly.

“On top of your head,” Roy tried again weakly.

Edward scratched the side of his head with the pen he was holding in his automail hand. “So do you.”

Roy’s hand on top of his head stopped. “What?”

“Two of them,” Edward looked back down at the paper in his hands. “Cute little round things – well as cute as something like that could be on someone like you.” He touched his hand to his own ears.”I bet you can only see them when you’re doped.”

“I am not doped,” Roy said sharply. “And I do not have ears.”

“You just keep telling yourself that, scruffy.”


	5. different werewolf au

Roy Mustang looked at the large, furry lump lying in the center of his bed and sighed, shrugging the stiff blue military jacket off of his shoulders. “You know I hate it when you do the furry thing in bed,” he said dryly, as the wolf’s tail began to thump. “Fur gets everywhere, it’s a pain to clean up.”

One wild, golden eye opened up to watch Roy move, undressing himself slowly. He was aware of Edward’s intense stare and opted to move slower, letting Edward enjoy the show.

The neighbors were not entirely fond of the fact that Roy Mustang had … adopted, for wont of a better term … a very large, golden wolf. Most people thought he was a dog at least, although the one time that Roy had presented Edward with a collar and tags, Edward actually had the audacity to growl at him.

When he looked up, unbuttoning the white collared shirt he wore under the military uniform, the wolf was gone from his bed. Edward sat there, naked, his hands braced In the space between his legs and the line of his body curled in a certain direction, as if to make sure that the point Roy’s gaze stopped on was his genitals.

“Ed,” Roy said, and Edward lifted his head, cocked it to the side like he would in his canine form, and proceeded to sneeze.

Roy hesitated a moment while Edward shook his head, and sneezed again. Then Roy laughed, a bit of a hearty laugh, and Edward frowned disapprovingly at him.


	6. hagane no samurai - untitled

The scent of wood-burning fire carried far on the crisp night air. It was cold out, even for this far into spring; the sakura had bloomed early, the white-pink petals scattered across the landscape like a fresh winter’s snow. Hagane sat, his back to a tree, one arm tucked around his katana, the sheathed weapon lay propped against his shoulder.

He should have stopped earlier in the day, before the sun sank past the horizon. There had been an old temple that looked a decent shelter, but he had declined to rest there. He did not like staying the night in old temples – not for fear of robbers and thieves, but for the fact that there seemed an overabundance of restless kami that took residence in such neglected structures.

Hagane had a long, and not entirely fond, history with kami. He would much rather not cross paths, but oftentimes fate spoke otherwise. He felt it much wiser though to not tempt the fates themselves directly, and instead settled on sleeping out in the open, albeit cold, night air.

It had been a quiet few weeks. He had lost the trail of the bakemono – a frustrating thing, but as he had recovered his daishou he simply did not move with the same urgency. The winds of change were blowing him in other directions, and he would soon be called back to Kyoto. To what end he was not certain, but with his own swords in hand again.

To be called back in to Kyoto meant facing Kaji-san again. And he did not know if he had the ability to face the man without shame. It was hard to misinterpret the look that Kaji-san had given him when he last left the city. It was not as if he was unaware of the effect that he had on the man, but it deeply unsettled him. He was bushi, even if the circumstances of his birth could call his mother’s honor into question, and no matter what he would not allow Kaji-san to smell the discomfort on him.

He was bushi. And that meant facing his fear, not running from it.

The hand tucked around his blade was flesh, cooled by the heavy weight of sword and sheathe. It would be so easy to sleep here, head propped up by the hilt, straw cloak tucked in around himself to keep him warm … but a pall of unease had settled on the young ronin.

Kaji was supposedly bound in to the strict regime of the Roshigumi. He spent time in Kyoto patrolling the streets with the rest of the men – and he had been very insistent that Hagane join their ranks. Hagane was not keen on that thought though – while he supported the Shogunate, he did not have any desire to be bound into the strict and archaic laws the rogue police force had constructed. He was perfectly content being a ronin, having never served a lord.

The shrill cry of an owl rent the silent night air, and left the hair along the back of Hagane’s neck standing on end. He was not scared of birds, nor of the likely creatures that caused such a response from the owl – but it brought him back to full wakefulness quickly.

One could never be too careful, in these woods.


	7. revenant - shore it up

It was tiring and dirty work, trying to keep the barricade up and in one piece. It seemed like all his joints hurt, and the stress if the heavy metal prosthetic hanging from his shoulder made it all the worse. 

Everything would be so much simpler if he could just clap his hands together and move the earth around, reinforcing the walls and keeping the dead separate from those who still lived. But his ability to do alchemy had evaporated, seemingly into thin air - and he wasn’t the only one affected. Alphonse, his little brother was a soul bound by alchemy to unfeeling armor. Whenever his ability to use alchemy vanished … so did Al. 

He couldn’t dwell on it. Alphonse came back, acting as if no time had passed. But even then, using alchemy drew the dead to them like moths to a flame. The only conclusion Edward could draw was that whatever event had caused the dead to rise from their graves had its origins in the same type of alchemy. 

(And if Edward ever found out who had enacted the transmutation that triggered this apocalyptic event, he would make damn sure that they would never worry about performing another transmutation again.) 

He bit back a tired curse as the dead rattled at the barricade, causing piles of debris to slide from the top of the mound. This was going to be a long and lonely task. Edward spared a glance back at the main building - they had never intended to stop here for any length if time, but the military facility was providing adequate protection - for the time being. 

Mustang was counting on him to help keep everyone safe. It was a very strange feeling, but Edward did not want to let him down.


	8. leaving on red hill - we left

There were those times that they looked at the stars, the cool, early spring wind rustling the still-barren tree branches. Out here the city lights were gone, and the full majesty of the night sky was on display, a canvas painted with stars. 

It awed him, even now. Roy lifted his head as a streak appeared, a brilliant burst of light that burned out just as quickly. A falling star. 

Roy caught Edward looking at him, and Edward smiled. He was human again, blond hair long and tangled and not nearly as dirty as Roy would have expected. “Did you make a wish?” Edward’s voice was rough, hoarse as it always was with disuse. His fingers cupped Roy’s cheek, the fur already gone. 

"My wish already came true," Roy said, kissing Edward’s fingers. 

Edward looked to the sky, and Roy sensed his hesitation. “Do you ever want to … go back?” 

Roy slid across the rough rock, draping his arm over Edward’s shoulder. It not longer felt strange to be naked here, in the wilderness - and it was never strange to be touching Edward. “I have everything I could ever want here, Ed,” he murmured, his chin tucked over Edward’s shoulder. “Besides, even if I wanted to, we could hardly go back like this. They… they wouldn’t understand.” 

That hurt more than Roy wanted to admit to himself, that they weren’t like other people any more. In fact, Roy wasn’t even entirely sure they were still human. He felt Edward sigh, the fur rippling down his back as he shifted gracefully back into wolf form. Roy didn’t raise his arms, his face still pressed into Edward’s soft, warm coat. 

"I have no regrets," Roy said, and Edward tossed his head back and sang his melancholy song to the moon


	9. misc au - research

It was not very hard to locate the wayward alchemist - even on such a bright, beautiful, sunny spring day he was sequestered away in the musty library. Roy Mustang sighed, unsurprised, as he yanked the blinds in the research room open. 

Edward did not even lift his head. He was hunched over a book at least a century old, squinting at the tiny handwritten scribble almost lost on the ancient yellowed page. If his eyes were not moving animatedly, Roy might have given the teenager up for dead. 

He sighed, amused, as he looked over the room. Clearly Alphonse had been through, as the clutter and dust was not as bad as it could have been. Roy was completely convinced that Edward could read through the Apocalypse and somehow come out unscathed. 

The door opened, and Roy looked up and smiled despite himself. The hulking suit if armor that contained the soul of Edward’s little brother was carrying a tray with two sandwiches on it. Good afternoon, Alphonse,” Roy said. Alphonse jerked a little in surprise, his helmet scraping across the helm. 

"Colonel Mustang, I didn’t expect you to come fetch brother personally," he said. "I haven’t had a chance to ready him. " 

"It’s no difficulty," Roy said smoothly. "It is far too fair a spring afternoon to stay locked away in a tiny little office, after all." 

"S’not like he was doing any work anyway," Edward muttered, surprising them both. Edward lifted his head, brushing his bangs out if his eyes with the motion. "I bet Lieutenant Hawkeye’s been looking for him most of the day." 

Roy smiled placatingly. “Do you really think so little of me, Fullmetal?” 

"Call me little again and we’ll just see what I think of you," Edward muttered, and closed his book.


	10. revenant - kicked in

The stench of the city was unbearable. They had taken to wearing bandannas over their faces, it helped to filter out the worst of the smell of decomposition. Edward stood on the side of an overturned military truck, one hand over his eyes to shade them as he surveyed the mostly-empty street. 

There were several ghouls straggling around the boulevard, but nothing that wouldn’t take a few minutes and a machete to take care of easily. They conserved their ammunition - on top of the fact that the noise attracted the dead like flies, their bullets were a limited resource. Edward wasn’t afraid to get close, but the others were. 

Alphonse shuffled up to the truck, a large bag of supplies tied around his back. “It looks clear up ahead, brother,” he reported, the plume on his helmet blowing a little in the soft breeze. “I was able to transmute a barricade that trapped a whole bunch in an alley.” 

If there was a way for a helmet to frown, Edward knew he would be frowning. Alphonse didn’t quite understand that these things weren’t people, not anymore - it was a difficult thing to come to grips with. “Good,” Edward said. “We should get back to the rendezvous point, Mustang has probably gotten himself in up to his chin again and needs us to bail him out.” 

Alphonse extended his arm to help his brother down, but Edward ignored it, swinging himself down from his surveillance perch with ease. He had taken to riding around on Alphonse like he was a metal pony because the ghouls ignored him when he did so. 

"Brother?" Alphonse asked curiously, and Edward shouldered the rifle that Mustang demanded he carry. 

"I’ll walk, Al," Edward said. Alphonse nodded his head, and quietly followed his brother.


	11. batteries

Alphonse pushed the large, stone cylinder with both gauntlets. The ancient construct didn’t move, it didn’t shift an iota. Edward sat perched on a ledge, his feet dangling in the air, staring down at the complex puzzle before them. 

"It’s not working, brother," Alphonse’s voice didn’t sound panicked, not yet - but there was an edge to it that he could pick up clear as day. "It’s not moving!" 

There were seven of the columns in all, identical - rough hewn sandstone, they seemed to almost grow out of the sandy floor. The cavern was well lit, at least - although to call it a cavern was a simplification, they were deep underneath a castle held by the late, maniacal, and recently deposed Count Bronstein. Normally Edward wouldn’t pass a thought on a slightly-unhinged ruler, but once deposed information came to light that made it sound like the dear departed has in his secret treasure vault an item of everlasting wealth. 

A stone, that could turn lead to gold. 

Any alchemist could turn that trick, it was a base transmutation. But oh, the lore abounded that connected gold transmutation to the Philosopher’s Stone. And if there was a chance, no matter how slim…. 

Alphonse moved to another column, and shoved. The pylon did not move, and the grating sound of leather against rough stone prickled his ears. 

There was a key to his puzzle, something simple and he would kick himself for a week once he figured it out. Edward bounced his heel off the wall as he looked at the arrangement of the columns, at the sandy floor, and at Alphonse, stalking angrily in a circle. 

What on EARTH was he missing? 

"Are you sure there’s only seven?" Edward called down, and Alphonse turned about, counting. 

"Yes, just seven."


	12. revenant - silence

It was easy enough to climb the abandoned military vehicle - it was the only one not overturned on the street, although the tires had been slashed to ribbons. Edward had slammed the open door and waited, but there was no movement from inside, so he felt safer, at least for the moment.

The entire street was deserted. He dropped his pack and sat down, the metal of the roof warmed by the early spring sun. Kicking his legs over the side he slung his rifle over his lap and looked up at the sky.

It wasn’t truly silent. The wind whispered past the empty buildings and ruffled his hair, clattering branches of the trees that lined the street. Not far away, he heard the chattering of birds, flitting about the trees as they worked to build their nests. The sounds of nature, getting along its business mindless of the changes elsewhere.

Edward scratched his nose with his automail hand, and then laid it back upon the rifle. The joints in his hand were losing their responsiveness - he hadn’t told anyone yet, but no one at the camp had any technical knowledge of automail. He’d deal with the slow loss of movement until he couldn’t take it any more … he didn’t want to be put on lighter duty because Mustang thought he wasn’t capable.

His stomach rumbled, and Edward sighed. He clambered to his feet and shouldered the rifle, before shadowing his eyes with his hand and glancing to the distance. He should be able to make the commissary before midday - if luck was with him there’d be something left on the shelves in cans that he could schlep back to the camp. If not, well - he could go hungry another day if he had to.


	13. revenant - goodbye kiss

It was weird, having Mustang at his back like this. Granted, with everything else that was going on the strange companionship that his former commanding officer offered was pretty low on the weird charts - but what was stranger even still was how comfortable Edward was with it. He hadn’t felt this comfortable with anyone except his brother, and he really didn’t know how to take that.

They had two vehicles - big old military trucks, restored to working order by the combined efforts of Joey and Alphonse. They couldn’t use alchemy to fix things faster, as the use of alchemy operated like a flare gun, drawing the dead to them faster than moths to a flame. It had taken two weeks and a lot of spare parts, but now they were running.

It was going to be a long journey north. Edward sat shotgun, a rifle in his lap having taken over the copilot position from Hawkeye. The shifts were staggered, as were the driving shifts - and this was the first time he’d be alone with Mustang since they left the camp.

He wondered if Mustang even remembered kissing him. He tried not to glance at the man, instead doing his job and keeping lookout. They’d been fortunate not to run across any major obstacles yet - but he didn’t expect their luck to hold. All the same he would steal sidelong glances at him - Roy Mustang looked like an entirely different person. His hair was no longer neatly trimmed, the ends were ragged and shaggy, and he was wearing almost a week’s worth of scruff. Edward rubbed his own chin self-consciously and resumed his watch out the window.

Maybe Mustang HAD forgotten. He didn’t want to bring it up, after all there were more important things to worry about now.


	14. hagane no samurai - creek bed

The high summer brought with it the drought. Rivers that were once swollen dwindled, and impassable creeks became simple affairs to ford, even for a traveler on foot.

The wide-brimmed bamboo hat kept the worst of the sun from his face and neck, but all the same Hagane breathed a sigh of relief when he placed his road-worn feet into the cooling stream. When he had last come by this way several seasons prior, there was a mighty river here, and bandits who worked with dishonest ferrymen to trap lone travelers into giving up their purses.

The small pier stood high above the water now. Seasons from now the river would replenish itself but currently no boat was needed, just a cautious eye to cross.

The bandits though - they were still out there.

They kept wide distance from him. He had been younger then, more prone to his anger and he slew at least half their number before they withdrew to lick their wounds. There was no telling if they intended to revenge themselves, or if they would let him pass in peace.

At its deepest point, the water came to his hip. Hagane had tied his traveling parcel to his swords, kept well out of the reach of the water. It was clear and slow-running, there was no chance of getting swept away. Once safely to the other shore he might linger a moment, perhaps take his lunch in leisure - but those plans evaporated swiftly with the distant twang of a strung bow.

Hagane hesitated a moment, and the arrow hit the water a few strides ahead of him, where he would have been. The time for ambling was gone, with his sword done up in his bundle he didn’t have a means to fight. He would have to make a run for it.


End file.
